Bentley Motors Wins Prestigious Award

Crewe 27 Oct 2003…Bentley Motors is delighted to have received the Luxury Briefing Award for Excellence. The company won the award for its strategy, drive and product innovation following the launch of the Bentley Continental GT – the world’s fastest four seat coupé, the first all-new and unique Bentley design for over 70 years.
Presenting the award, James Ogilvy, Publisher for Luxury Briefing said: "Bentley won the 2003 Luxury Briefing Award for Excellence for the outstanding management of its brand. The integrity of the marque has never been compromised, it is a truly exclusive product and the sporting heritage has been re-asserted with the remarkable 1-2 win at Le Mans this year. Now, with the launch of the new Continental GT, the company looks set to take its superb, hand-crafted cars to a broader market without diluting any of its core values."
Accepting the award for Bentley Motors, Mark Tennant, Director of Product Strategy said: "I am delighted to accept this award, which caps a great year for Bentley, with our victory at Le Mans in June and the tremendous acclaim for the new Continental GT. The response to the car has been outstanding in terms of both press coverage and orders placed – and now to receive this accolade from our peers in the luxury goods business is icing on the cake."
Former winners of the award, designed to recognise brands at the top of their field representing excellence and drive within the luxury industry, include Jo Malone, Joseph and Burberry. For Bentley Motors the Continental GT is symbolic of the
change that the company is going through and the award serves as recognition for this. It is the first offspring of a new family of cars, which deliver unparalleled levels of refinement, craftsmanship and driver involvement – or as Bentley describes this combination, the ultimate British Sporting Grand Tourer.
At the heart of this combination is the company’s belief that the car should be excellent in all rational parameters, but more importantly, should adapt itself to the character that the driver chooses. As a British Sporting Grand Tourer, it should have supercar pace, elegance, and exquisite levels of interior accommodation. As a Bentley, it must have all of these strengths and the capability to cover continents with power and comfort in reserve.
Just four years ago, the team at Crewe set out to create something appealing and unique in the marketplace, and crucially, in line with the traditions of Bentley. The aim was not to create a pastiche of the past, but to understand the essence of ‘Bentleyness’, and then carry this forward in a new and exciting way.
Rather than the customer having to compromise on comfort, luxury or performance, the Continental GT delivers 198mph (318km/h) top speed, prodigious tractability in all conditions, and levels of accommodation and craftsmanship that are typically Bentley – peerless.
The result is the Continental GT, a car that is as competent as a supercar, as versatile as our customers demand, and as expertly handcrafted as any car from the home of automotive craftsmanship – Crewe, England.
Some 84 years ago, WO Bentley defined how he wanted a car bearing his name to be viewed in one simple sentence: ‘a good car, a fast car, the best in its class.’ With the new Continental GT, we believe that is exactly what we have created.